To link to the entire object, paste this link in email, IM or documentTo embed the entire object, paste this HTML in websiteTo link to this page, paste this link in email, IM or documentTo embed this page, paste this HTML in website

Documents printed by order of the General Assembly of North Carolina at its session of ...[1835-1839]

6
gatliered on the very ground, into which at the commencement ol his
terprize a pole could be thrust by hand to the depth of 10 feet.
Labor and provisions have both enhanced in value in the course of
the current year to the amount certainly of 25 per cent.—the former
perhaps for such purposes as our uses require to a still greater extent
:
$90 per annum was last year an exhorbitant hire for a slave in the re-gion
whence the labor was expected to be obtained ; but the demand for
labor upon the Wilmington and Roanoke Rail Road has long since
reached this region, and those who would last season have let their
slaves for $90. expect from $120 to $150 for the present. We are con-sequently
disappointed in the expectation of finding contractors among
the planters of the country; they will not undertake except with a
prospect of inordinate profit.
My being a stranger in the State and my ignorance as to the de-gree
of credit to be attached to the statements of those from whom I was
compelled to seek information in regard to prices, gave rise to an opin-ion,
which I cannot now confirm, that these works could be executed
by the planters of the neighborhood at less than the usual contract pri-ces
; one instance may be mentioned, as an example of the sanguine
expectations, which, whether, from a responsive feeling in themselves
or from interested motives those making such statements evidently
wished to impress. A readiness was expressed in my office, and in
the presence of my assistants, to make the entire of the canal spoken of
in my last report, from Mattamuskeet Lake to Pamlico Sound, for 6
cents the cubic yard, by a gentleman who is now a contractor upon the
Alligator Canal at 15 cents, and very modestly proposes, in the absence
of proposals from other quarters, to take a further and very heavy con-tract
at 20 cents ; avowing now an unwillingness to engage in the work
without the expectation of large profits. The progress of this contract,
though under the most unskilful management, and upon the most diffi-cult
portion of the Canal, has demonstrated a nett gain of at least 25 per
cent, to the contractors. The original estimate contemplated that a
gang of five hands would excavate and deposite in the embankment
900 cube feet per day, or 180 feet per hand. The condition of the con-tract
alluded to was that the manner of carrying on the excavation
should be left to the contractors, they preferring their own method to that
contained in the specifications. The true economy in works of this
sort is so to proportion the excavators and barrow men that neither de-scription
of laborers may be kept waiting for the other, and the work
of all so disposed as to leavo no fractions of labour unemployed. This
desirable state of things has by no means been attained upon the con-tract
in question, and yet upon earth, the tenacity and hardness of

6
gatliered on the very ground, into which at the commencement ol his
terprize a pole could be thrust by hand to the depth of 10 feet.
Labor and provisions have both enhanced in value in the course of
the current year to the amount certainly of 25 per cent.—the former
perhaps for such purposes as our uses require to a still greater extent
:
$90 per annum was last year an exhorbitant hire for a slave in the re-gion
whence the labor was expected to be obtained ; but the demand for
labor upon the Wilmington and Roanoke Rail Road has long since
reached this region, and those who would last season have let their
slaves for $90. expect from $120 to $150 for the present. We are con-sequently
disappointed in the expectation of finding contractors among
the planters of the country; they will not undertake except with a
prospect of inordinate profit.
My being a stranger in the State and my ignorance as to the de-gree
of credit to be attached to the statements of those from whom I was
compelled to seek information in regard to prices, gave rise to an opin-ion,
which I cannot now confirm, that these works could be executed
by the planters of the neighborhood at less than the usual contract pri-ces
; one instance may be mentioned, as an example of the sanguine
expectations, which, whether, from a responsive feeling in themselves
or from interested motives those making such statements evidently
wished to impress. A readiness was expressed in my office, and in
the presence of my assistants, to make the entire of the canal spoken of
in my last report, from Mattamuskeet Lake to Pamlico Sound, for 6
cents the cubic yard, by a gentleman who is now a contractor upon the
Alligator Canal at 15 cents, and very modestly proposes, in the absence
of proposals from other quarters, to take a further and very heavy con-tract
at 20 cents ; avowing now an unwillingness to engage in the work
without the expectation of large profits. The progress of this contract,
though under the most unskilful management, and upon the most diffi-cult
portion of the Canal, has demonstrated a nett gain of at least 25 per
cent, to the contractors. The original estimate contemplated that a
gang of five hands would excavate and deposite in the embankment
900 cube feet per day, or 180 feet per hand. The condition of the con-tract
alluded to was that the manner of carrying on the excavation
should be left to the contractors, they preferring their own method to that
contained in the specifications. The true economy in works of this
sort is so to proportion the excavators and barrow men that neither de-scription
of laborers may be kept waiting for the other, and the work
of all so disposed as to leavo no fractions of labour unemployed. This
desirable state of things has by no means been attained upon the con-tract
in question, and yet upon earth, the tenacity and hardness of